Show i aw by ELMO SCOTT WATSON IF IT Is true that the ahot tired near concord bridge 1 I j in one morn ing in april of 1775 was heard round the world then it Is equally true that a shot fired in fords theater in washington D C one evening in april CO years later seems likely to echo down through history for all the years to come for it was the shot which ended the life of one of the greatest americans just at a time when the nation need ed most of the wisdom the patience and the sane moral courage which were his and the leaden missile which cut the thread of his life at the same time shattered the hopes and bappe ness of countless thousands of his countrymen so the tragedy of the assassination of abraham lincoln by john walkes booth has a sorrowful fascination about it which makes it unforgettable the story of that dark deed and the retribution which BO speedily overtook the perpetrator Is a familiar one to most americans but it Is one in which tact and fiction became in interwoven in the years which have passed since it took place that this should be so Is not difficult to realize if we can reconstruct the atmosphere of hatred suspicion and political which prevailed at the close of a great civil conflict in such an atmosphere it Is not to be wondered at that facts hould be distorted and that the story of Lincol ns assassination which has been banded down to us should contain as many balf truths and no truths as truths recently there has appeared a book which sheds much new light on that famous tragedy and from which it la possible to know what actually took place on that historic good friday and during the days of wild excitement that followed it Is john walkes booth fact and fiction of lincoln s assassination published by houghton mifflan company and written by a veteran of the stage francis allson who knew many of the mem bers of alie cast alio played with miss laura keene at fords theater that night as well as members of the booth family notably booth allson according to one reviewer of his book writes in justification of murder much less in justification tit that monumental crime UIs task it the thankless but important one of telling the truth to his fellow catl booth picture courteny JUIf flIn zens north and south lie has invaded a field poisoned by more than half a century of defamatory propaganda and emerged triumphant while there can be no justification tor john walles booths crime there can be an explanation of it I 1 here Is no doubt that booth was a morbid minded fanatic who believed himself actuated by a high and noble purpose in planning ats deed that deed incidentally book reveals was originally planned as one of abduction rather than alon booth a strong southern sym believed that if be could abduct the president and bold him a captive be could dictate the terms tor his release an abrogation of grants order forbidding the ex change of prisoners an important factor in the war as the south s ann power dwindled a strengthening of the cry of the northern democrats that the war Is a failure an ac of the independence of the south and an end to the nar lie bad been planning the abduction for several months as shown by a letter written in november 1804 to john S cearle bis brother in law in which he said nor do I 1 deem it a dishonor in attempting to make for her the south a prisoner of this men to whom she owes so much mis cry but when lees surrender marked the beginning of the end and booth beard lincoln speak to the crowd that gathered before the white house upon his return from the front suggesting enfranchisement of negroes who had served as soldiers a more dangerous idea was born in bis mind this Is the last speech he will ever make booth muttered to lewis payne his companion and a fellow conspirator in the plans for the abduction of lincoln the details of the assassination it self and the pursuit and capture of booth Is eo familiar to roost amerl cans as to need no repetition one of the services of book Is to correct some of the erroneous ideas about both the usual story has booth leaping to the stage from the box in the president sat be bad shot lincoln brandishing n dagger and shouting sic semper ty the tact Is that booth shouted those words before he fired and that be did not speak after leap ing to the stage the commonly ac cepter version of booths death Is that he was shot down in the burning barn by a sergeant named boston corbett W allson states that when alie barn was fired booth determined to rush out of it and try to shoot his way through the cordon of soldiers surrounding it ue had gone but a steps when he realized the tuell ity of the attempt and preferring death to capture ha determined to end bis own life and shot himself I 1 or policy s sake boston corbett was permitted to have the credit for having shot him secretary stanton bad but one purpose in regard to booth and that was to deprive those who might applaud booths deed of the thought that he was a martyr who had cheated the av engers of lincoln B death by committing suicide various fantastic tales have been told about the disposal of booths body but these allson sets at rest by telling of his burial in the penitentiary grounds in washington and the subsequent positive identification of his remains when the body was ex humid in tor reburial rebur lal in the booth burial plot in baltimore but more important still this book lays for all time the ghost of john alkes booth which for the last fifty years has bobbed up at various times and in various places in the forms of different persons who claimed to be booth there have been a number of these take john walkes booths but perhaps the most famous one was the central figure in a book written by a certain finis L bates of memphis tenn bates became acquainted with a house painter named john st helen who confessed to him that he was john walkes booth who had survived the pursuit by the soldiers after lincoln s assassination st helen was thing under the name of david el george when he died in oklahoma bates discovered that the embalmer embalmed ed body of george was in enla ekla he took charge of it and carried it to his home in memphis he then wrote his book to prove that george really was booth and made repeated attempts to collect the reward of the federal government had offered for the body of booth after the assassination As late as 1925 another fake showed ap in minneapolis where according to the story he called upon blanche de bar booth daughter of juilus brutus booth the younger a brother of edwin and john walkes booth knocking on her door at the hotel and speaking from the outside lie said blanche d n t you want to see johnne believing that it was the work of some joker she refused to see him and after leaving a card bearing the name of john walkes booth he departed saying that he would call again he did not show up again however and although some newspapers made much of the dent nothing further ever came of it for the truth Is as Wll sons book proves conclusively jolin walkes bootle died in the burning barn probably by his own hand and all who later claimed to be the assassin were rank Im |